i got puched by karate and kungfu folks, no gloves, i.e. bare knuckles. none of them went in deep, i.e. you feel it inside your body, as when i got punched by the systema guy. his hands weren't heavy conditioned, actually kinda girly he was just flick his arm, and it wasn't looking much of a punch. man, i saw stars even though he droped his fist on my heavy chest muscle. one of my sempai said the same thing. those systema buggers punching are kinda strange. they hit you on one part of the body and you feel it somewhere else. and they hit from oddest angles. i used to hit wooden posts and things like that, but haven't done those sort of things for decades. my hands are girly now. i liked to conditioned it with regular lotions, since it tends to dry and crack. the wife doesn't like callous hands. since i touched the wife more than i would hit folks, so i would go with the lotion conditioning approach. and if i happen to hit someone, they would appreciate the good smell and softness of my hands. and they might even asking for more.